Exercise: Break three AI tools in 15 minutes
Exercise: Stress-Test the Boundaries
Time required: 15 minutes
The best way to internalise AI's limitations is to experience them firsthand. In this exercise, you'll deliberately probe the edges of what AI can do.
Open any AI assistant you have access to — ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Copilot, or any other tool. You're going to run three short experiments.
Step 1—Task 1: Test the Knowledge Cutoff
Ask the AI about something you know happened very recently — within the last few weeks. This could be a news event, a sports result, a product launch, or a policy announcement. Pay attention to how the AI responds:
- Does it acknowledge its limitations?
- Does it try to answer anyway?
- If it has web search access, does it find the right information?
Example prompts to try:
- "Who won [recent sporting event] last weekend?"
- "What were the key announcements at [recent conference or event]?"
- "What is the current price of [a specific stock or commodity]?"
What prompt did you use, and which AI tool did you test?
What happened? Did the AI acknowledge its limitations, try to answer anyway, or use web search?
Keep these notes — you'll build on this understanding throughout the rest of the course.